478 
EDITORIAL. 
wrought  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  vastness  of  our  resources  ;  furnaces, 
mills  and  foundries,  are  to  be  erected  and  conducted.  These  to  be  followed  by 
the  higher  and  more  delicate  branches  of  manufacture,  and  these  again,  by  the 
more  graceful  arts  of  design,  the  triumphs  of  the  pencil,  the  graver  and  the 
chisel. 
The  faculty  consists  of  four  principal  professors,  viz :  1st,  of  metal- 
lurgy and  of  industrial,  analytical  and  agricultural  chemistry  ;  2d,  mathe- 
matics and  civil  engineering  :  3d,  of  mining  engineering,  mineralogy  and 
geology;  4th,  of  mechanical  philosophy  and  the  principles  of  machinery. 
Besides  these  chairs,  the  last  of  which  is  not  yet  filled,  the  curriculum  in- 
cludes the  Spanish,  French  and  German  languages,  and  mechanical,  archi- 
tectural and  topographical  drawing  by  distinct  teachers,  and  recently  an 
Academical  department  has  been  added. 
"With  objects  so  valuable,  this  institution  deserves  the  best  wishes  and 
support  of  all  interested  in  promoting  knowledge  and  progress.  So  far  it 
is  an  experiment ;  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  American  public  will 
appreciate  the  advantages  offered  by  the  institution,  and  whether  the 
faculty  will  succeed  in  sustaining  the  high  ground  they  have  taken.  "We 
wish  them  entire  success. 
Editorial  Book  Notices. — It  is  not  always  an  easy  task  to  write  a 
book  notice  that  will  please  the  author  and  publisher  and  yet  do  justice  to 
the  truth.  The  primary  object  of  noticing  books  in  periodical  journals, 
would  seem  bo  be  as  a  means  of  information  to  the  reader  of  their  general 
character,  if  new  books,  or  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  additions  or 
changes  in  revisions,  that  he  may  be  assisted  in  forming  an  idea  of  their 
value  or  improvement.  The  secondary  object  of  such  notices  is  to  advertise 
the  book  and  the  author  as  a  matter  of  profit  and  reputation.  The  order  of 
importance  has  now-a-days  been  much  changed.  The  primary  object  often 
appears  to  be  complimentary  to  the  author  or  praisefully  useful  to  booksel- 
lers, for  whose  benefit  a  few  choice  sentences  or  paragraphs  are  inserted, 
brief  enough  for  extraction  and  due  reiteration  in  advertisements.  In  this 
condition  of  things  the  editor  of  a  journal  is  apt  to  find  himself  in  a  di- 
lemma. If  he  aims  at  not  giving  offence,  he  is  often  compelled  to  select  his 
language  so  nicely  that  the  reader  is  at  a  loss  to  tell  whether  most  of  blame 
or  praise  is  intended,  and  his  critique,  like  the  misty  sentences  of  the  Del- 
phian  oracle,  may  mean  the  one  or  the  other,  as  suits  the  author  who  feels, 
or  the  reader  who  judges.  If  he  speaks  the  plain  truth,  he  must  often  pre- 
pare himself  for  ill-natured  reflections,  cold  shoulders,  and  sometimes  for 
that  small  artillery  of  the  publisher,  the  withholding  of  future  publications 
as  a  penalty.  To  wound  the  feelings  of  an  author  or  editor  intentionally, 
by  ill-natured,  untruthful  or  invidious  remarks,  uncalled  for  by  the  material 
reviewed,  is  wrong  and  often  cruel ;  to  do  it  unintentionally,  when  follow- 
ing the  line  of  editorial  duty,  is  extremely  unpleasant,  especially  when  such 
a  result  is  not  anticipated.    With  the  publisher  the  wound,  if  any  occurs,  is 
